


Wanna see what's under that attitude

by mishaboo



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies), The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Background Cecil Kanagawa, Background Mick Mercury, Background Relationships, Background Sarah Steel, Background Valles Vicky, Benzaiten Steel (mentioned) - Freeform, Jaeger Pilots, Jaegers (Pacific Rim), Kaiju (Pacific Rim), M/M, Movie: Pacific Rim (2013), Sarah Steel (Mentioned) - Freeform, damn this boy, juno used to be a jaeger pilot, peter has just tried to steal a jaeger in front of everybody, the last episode just asked for this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:07:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24409306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mishaboo/pseuds/mishaboo
Summary: Juno used to be a pilot some time ago, but right now his rutine is more about training new cadets and ranting around. During the compatibility tests where they were supposed to choose who was going to drive a new state-of-the-art jaeger called Seventh Ruby, all the alarms go off because it is being stolen. The thief is some guy identified as Rex Glass but Marshal Wire is not willing to just send him to jail, so they close a deal: Rex will train as a cadet so he can apply to be one of the pilots of the Seventh Ruby, and Juno will be his mentor because, apparently, he has too much free time and they are paying him a ranger's wage only for him to look through the windows melancholically and talk to himself.
Relationships: Aurinko Crime Family & Juno Steel, Buddy Aurinko & Peter Nureyev & Rita & Jet Sikuliaq & Juno Steel & Vespa, Buddy Aurinko/Vespa, Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel
Comments: 7
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first published fic and the first time a write non-original characters plus english is not my mother tonge so pls be gentle with me

Juno’s room, unlike many of his mates’, had a window from where he could see the sky. And that is because his twin brother Ben got it from their mom and Ben was dead, so the room with a window was Juno’s now. And Juno was okay with that whole deal because it happened a long time ago and it wasn’t anybody’s fault. Not his fault, for sure, even if he was the one who didn’t insist on retiring when Ben said they couldn’t leave their mother behind. It wasn’t his fault.

The thing is, Juno had this habit of climbing things since he was a kid, and his window was not an exception because he liked the view from the roof, the waves of the cold Pacific Ocean crashing against the _Shatterdome_ that was carved directly into the cliff, the permanent storm that obscured the sky since 2013 and the feeling of vastness the wind brought him from the horizon. Up in the roof, Juno was just Juno, and he let himself breathe in the salty breeze and get rid of the stress of his part-time ranger/part-time general disappointment routine.

And yes, all of that was is very poetic but let’s be honest, the real reason why Juno went up there was usually either to throw a tantrum or to nap in working hours, as you do. And he was doing precisely that when the explosion shook the entire building under his back.

Juno sighed and opened his eyes slowly. At first, the Statue-of-Liberty-size _jaeger_ standing in front of him didn’t seem weird. Juno was used to _jaegers_ , he even used to pilot one himself back in the day. _Jaegers_ were cool. This particular one was a little bit smaller than the standard ones, bright green like a beetle and…

—…fuck. —Juno began crawling back as the robot lifted its humongous hand towards the place where he was laying. —Listen, if this is my punishment for ducking out of the compatibility tests today, I’m sorry! —he shouted, raising the palms of his hands as a surrender sign. The furious wind produced by the spinning blades of the fan that was in the center of the robot’s chest howled around him, messing the dark curls of his hair and making him frown to look up to the dark figure that stood against the cloudy sky.

Not without surprise, Juno noticed something about the _jaeger_ that was…off, to say the least. It moved without connection between its parts, limping and hunched, and that clashed violently with the clean and polished look of the machine. It wasn’t attacking him; it was leaning on the roof because its pilots couldn’t quite keep it upright. Looking directly to the head as if he was able to see who was piloting it, Juno smirked.

At that moment, the titanic silhouette of another robot appeared from behind the first one, white and all scarred from past battles.

—Pilots of the _Seventh Ruby_ , this is a warning. —the amplified voice of ranger Buddy Aurinko from the newcomer _jaeger_ echoed with a metallic taste. —Power down and exit your Conn-Pod. —she said, with an official yet tiresome tone, as if she did that kind of thing every day.

The green giant turned its chest slowly, just enough to be able to see the other one and shook its free hand, clenching and relaxing the fist. Its pilots clearly didn’t know how to load the weapons and Juno thought it was a pity because the _Seventh Ruby_ was the new crowning jewel of the _Shatterdome_ , a state-of-the-art _Mark-5_ still in its testing phase and it could probably sink Buddy’s _Carte Blanche_ without any issue. But, before they could figure out how to put up a fight, the bigger _jaeger_ pushed its hands on both sides of the other one’s body, keeping its arms from moving. That lethally controlled action and the way its fingers pressed just the correct joint so the prey couldn’t scape had the other pilot’s signature. That must had been Vespa. She and her wife were one of the most legendary teams of the Pan Pacific Defense Corps. The _Seventh Ruby_ collapsed into the sea.

By the time the helicopters arrived to take the _jaegers_ inside again, Juno had already left the roof, and, as he was running down the halls to the hangar, he couldn’t help but feeling excited like he hadn’t felt in a long time. The bright green _jaeger_ was supposed to be faster than any other, very technologically advanced, and provided with a new software capable of analyzing the scenario and giving support to its pilots, a true masterpiece of engineering. And it just got _almost stolen_ in the middle of the compatibility test where they were supposed to choose who was going to drive it, right in front of loads of pilots from all around the world. And Juno would be damned if he didn’t want to know who those reckless morons who almost got away with it were before the Marshall obliterated them from history and made it look like an accident.

—Honk, honk! —There was a whole crowd gathered around the feet of the _Seventh Ruby_ , that was still dripping a lot of salty water, and it took Juno a few good shoves getting to the front line.

Standing just under the machine, Marshall Sasha Wire, with her eternal dark glasses and military bearing was accompanied by a tall technician in a heavy brown jacket and, of course, by Buddy and Vespa, who were still in their drivesuits. All of them had their backs turned to the rest of the people so their eyes couldn’t reach the thieves, but it was pretty obvious that they weren’t killing them. Not even a bit. He felt a little disappointed by that.

—Hey mister Steel! —a familiar voice and the small figure that went with it appeared next to Juno, pushing him a bit to the side while chewing noisily. The whole _mister_ thing was a joke Ben and Juno played on Rita a long time ago, back when they were doing their first tests on real jaegers and she was an intern drift supervisor and it kind of stuck. —Am I late? I went to take some pretzels but not the regular sized ones but the tiny ones because I heard the explosion and figured I could get to the dining area while everybody was here and take them before they ran out of those because by lunchtime the tiny pretzels are always gone and…—she explained at full speed as if she didn’t need to breathe.—Isn’t she going to like…do something?

—Honestly? I was asking myself the same question, Rita. —He nodded without taking his gaze off their superior.

Marshall Wire turned to face the crowd, inspecting their curious faces before looking directly at Juno with an indecipherable expression, intercepting his stare.

—Juno—she called, pronouncing every letter of his name with deliberate calmness. —would you mind joining us for a bit? — He knew Sasha, so he could see there was a certain degree of urgency in the stiffness of her whole posture and the way she took her sunglasses off slowly, even if she tried to brush it off.

—Do I really need to? —He wasn’t going to disobey because her eyes were as acquainted as cold and piercing, but he wasn’t going to accept becoming the target of the public lynching instead of the thieves without complaining either.

—I can’t believe how _mean_ Marshall Wire is, I want to see the thieves too!! I bet they are super scary! You go mister Steel!!—Rita pushed Juno with both hands on his back, encouraging him to walk faster towards the group as an excuse for her to get closer too.

But it wasn’t until they completely caught up with the rest below the legs of the metallic giants that Juno saw the thieves. At that moment, everything clicked inside his head, the reason why the _Seventh Ruby_ could have never gone too far, why it moved _like that_ and couldn’t keep itself upright. It wasn’t because of the uselessness of its pilots, but because there was _only one_. He was tall, lean, and absolutely beaten up, sweating, bleeding and soaking wet. The thief raised his eyes to meet Juno’s and smiled for a second, arching his brows aristocratically and lifting his upper lip just enough to reveal the sharpness of his canines.

—What were you doing up in the roof? —placing one of her hands like a claw on his shoulder, Sasha woke Juno up from his daydream. —Haven’t I already told you how _sad_ would it be if the last of the legendary dynasty of Steel pilots would be accidentally pushed off a roof by a childhood friend powerful enough to not be sent to jail? —she smiled.

— _Very_ sad. —Vespa agreed, getting a nudge from her wife, whose flaming red curls still looked disheveled from wearing the drivesuit helmet.

—Anyway—Sasha cleared her throat, recovering her professional tone. —Juno, it’s an established fact that I can’t trust you to behave when you have a bit of free time, so you are going to be mentoring Rex so he can apply to the next compatibility tests for the _Seventh Ruby_.—she pointed at the thief and then to Juno.—He is a cadet now, and I don’t want to see either of you messing around or he is going to jail and you are getting downgraded.—she raised her chin up to look directly at the ranger.—Did I make myself clear?—Juno nodded, rolling his eyes.—You are each other’s business now!—she clapped, ending the meeting.

As those present scattered around to take care of their daily tasks, Buddy patted Juno’s back with a wink, wishing him good luck.

—You can do this, mister Steel!—Rita slipped a couple of tiny pretzels into his pocket before leaving, just like everybody else.

—I guess it’s just the two of us now, right? —He sighed, trying to smile but without putting much effort into it.

—Rex Glass—the thief shortened the distance that separated them with an unsteady step, offering his hand to shake Juno’s, with yet another one of his charming and slightly intimidating smiles. —lovely to meet you—he didn’t get to finish the sentence, as he fainted just close enough for the ranger to jump forward a bit and take his body between his arms.

—God, I already hate you. —Juno grumbled.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it's been more than a month!! I had my exams and stuff and then I had a /huge/ writer's block and well. I'm back I guess.

Life is like a microwave. Because you have to be patient and wait for it to beep because if you get distracted doing other stuff you may forget that you have food inside and find it out next week and cleaning it will be nasty, I can assure you that. And who has time for cleaning the microwave these days? Not you, that’s for sure. But if you open it too early you can get radiation and, I mean, it is objectively not a lot of radiation and it is okay if you do it once but maybe next Friday you really _really_ want that pizza you are heating up in the microwave so you open it too early once again and you will not die because of it that Friday or any other Friday for _years_. And you get used to opening the microwave too early and _boom_. One day you are the crazy lady in the sci-fi movie who had to sell everything she had before the apocalypse to get robotic implants to replace the hand she used to open the microwave with. On a second thought that is pretty cool, but don’t open the microwave before the beep, kids. Listen to your mom.

So, one of the things that tell apart a master thief from a nobody lifter, as well as an artist from any other person is timing, the gift of being in the right place at the right time, and being there when the microwave beeps and nobody is looking.

Rex Glass didn’t have that gift. At least, that morning he didn’t. Now? That’s a different story.

The first thing he noticed when he got his consciousness back was how cold it was. But that was not the only thing he noticed, because he was a _master thief_ (or so he liked to call himself) and he had spent half of his life running away so he normally noticed things other people didn’t. Like the quiet rustle the fabric of the bomber jacket of a person that was probably sat down near the base of the bed where Rex was lying made when they breathed, or the smell of coffee that floated in the air above them, masking the one of the bleach they used to clean. From that, he understood they were probably in some kind of sickroom, which meant his plan worked and he was finally able to get into the Shatterdome. Nice.

He didn’t open his eyes, and kept his breathing steady and regular, heavy as if he was still asleep, and even if the blanket someone had the courtesy to put over him was scratchy he kept himself from moving.

—Is this him? —he heard a voice he didn’t recognize from the other side of the room and the bump of a door being closed, which helped him imagine the size of the area. Not as big as one would think the sickroom of a place like the Shatterdome would be. Not nearly as big as a place full of pilots who went out to fight giant monsters every day and probably got hurt regularly _should_ be.

—Yup. —the person near the base of the bed revealed himself.—Doesn’t look like much, does he?—Both he and I would be lying if we said Rex’s pride wasn’t hurt after that comment. The voice belonged undoubtedly to the guy from the hangar though, the ranger. What was his name? Steel? Everything he could remember from the last minutes before fainting was tinted with his own blood and the tunnel vision the eyes he could barely keep open granted him, so he wasn’t really sure of anything. But yes, ranger _something something_ Steel. That sounded right.

—I mean, I have been cleaning his blood all the way here from the hangar and he’s lived to tell the tale so—the stranger approached him to take a closer look. — at least he is brave.

—Or stupid. —Steel sighed heavily, and by the noise of his jacket against the chair, he knew the ranger just sprawled on his seat and started eating something crunchy from one of his pockets.

—…come on, that’s _so_ not the attitude. —the newcomer’s steps were light and fast, almost nervous as he took another chair and sat in front of his colleague. —You know you can’t eat here, right?

—First of all, it’s been seven hours. —he took a break in the middle of the sentence to eat some more as if he was tempting his luck.—And I’m getting demoted anyway, so I may as well have fun until then.—the thief could almost see him smile by the sound of his voice.—Do you want some?—he offered.

For a few minutes, the only noise in the room was the quiet chewing of mutual understanding between the two of them.

—I don’t think Sasha’s gonna fire you, though. —the stranger broke the silence. —I mean, I know she is all _serious_ and _cool_ now but deep down she’s still Sasha, you know? We were children together; she can’t sack you.

—I guess you are right, Mick. — Steel sighed again. — After all, she is keeping you.

—What do you mean? —a man as bright as they come that Mick guy.

The ranger didn’t answer, and the quiet sound of the raindrops against a window that the thief had just realized was there took over the moment.

—I think I’m out of tiny pretzels. — Steel pointed, after a short silence.

Rex opened his eyes slowly and, even if at first the light from the white fluorescents on the ceiling was too much for him, he made an effort to keep them opened so he didn’t lose the chance to look around before being noticed.

Steel (his _mentor_ now, he remembered) was sitting on a chair in the worst way possible, with both legs over one of the armrests and his back on the other one. He looked tired, but he was wearing this very faint smile that fluttered on the right corner of his mouth, hinting that he was right up his alley. He wasn’t aware of his stare. Not yet, at least.

The other man was probably supposed to be some kind of nurse, but nobody would have guessed so if it wasn’t because of his uniform, that, apart from being at least two sizes too big for his scruffy body, Rex could have said without fear of being wrong that it hadn’t been ironed in the last month. Or ever. His eyes were wide open and fixed on him as if he had seen a ghost.

The thief smiled but, just before he had time to say any cool one-liner, his stomach groaned, breaking the silence and betraying him. Hearing everybody eating while his mouth was occupied with that _terrible_ taste of iron had been his downfall.

—Done listening yet, sleeping beauty? —Steel turned to look at him. His expression was more severe now, somehow _tenser_.

—There is no denying I was… _attentive_ , ranger. —he said, brushing off the tension with an elegant laugh. — But, can you blame me when you have such a charming voice?

He looked confused for just a moment that Rex used to sit up with his back against the metallic headboard of the bed. Moving that fast made the white walls of the room spin around him, but he was determined to hide it, so he clenched the jaw slightly and kept his smile on, waiting.

—Mick, can you…? — he gestured towards the door, and then to the thief, and to himself.

—Do you…? —the man looked alternatively to the other two people in the room.

For a couple of minutes, both of them gestured without saying a word, as if they were having a silent conversation thinking the other spoke his language when in fact neither of them could understand the other and, deep down his mind and under his calmed façade, Rex was _really_ enjoying the show.

—Can you bring me a fucking wheelchair, please? —Steel finally gave up, intoning in an excessively slow way. —I only have a week to teach this guy _everything_ and by the way he fixed his eyes straight to the front when he sat up he’s probably still useless even if he is awake so-

—A WHEELCHAIR, RIGHT. —Mick exclaimed. — I thought…oh shit, yes, a wheelchair, I’ll be back in a jiffy! — he blathered, leaving the room without making eye contact with anybody.

On the other side of the window that Rex could see from his bed it was dark and the rain was still falling.

—Come on, Glass. — the ranger got up slowly, dragging his feet on the first steps he took to approach him. —Mick must be about to come.

He offered his hand, strong and determined, to the thief that promptly took it and dragged his body to the edge of the bed.

—Call me Rex, please. —he breathed painfully, as his knees buckled while trying to take the first step by himself.

Half reluctantly, Steel got closer to him, putting the other’s arm over his shoulder and clearing his throat without saying anything else until they got to the door.

—It’s going to be a wild ride, this week. — He sighed finally.

—Oh, but I have a hunch, ranger Steel—Rex smiled, and he looked sincere for once. — I think we are going to have fun nonetheless.


End file.
